Ringing in Another Anniversary

The Sailor and I got to ring in another anniversary together this year. Depending on his sailing schedule, we often spend our holidays separated by a sea, but we've managed to celebrate our anniversary together fairly often. 

We're not very typical when it comes to anniversaries... there were no gifts or cards exchanged between the two of us, and not much in the way of wining and dining (unless you count those burgers we ordered at lunch while we were running errands.) 

Last year, we looked through our wedding photos. This year, we simply spent the day together, puttering around garden centers and home improvement stores, and then finally stocking up on groceries. I made soup for dinner. We would have also had chocolate cake if we hadn't already eaten it all by the weekend. 

Today, the Sailor put up the curtain rod we picked out together for the living room. He even vacuumed up the mess afterwards. Then he looked for a good sunny spot to keep our tomato plants in until it gets warm enough to transplant them. I guess some gals need flowers and the works on their anniversaries, but me? I'll take my Sailor any day. Whether he's in the same country as me or not, he still reminds me to live, laugh and love. And that's worth far more to me than any greeting card.
 

Cast Iron and Pizza

A few years ago, when the Sailor and I moved into an apartment downstairs from my mother, I slyly tried to manipulate her into letting me 'borrow' one of her many cast irons pans. We were still building up our kitchen arsenal and I didn't yet have many of the things I needed for my tiny kitchen. We were already borrowing several other things from her in the meantime, so I didn't think she'd noticed if I added one of the cast iron pans to the list.

She cleverly retorted, 'The cast iron stays upstairs.' 

That week, we bought ourselves our very own cast iron pan. A few months later, a brand new round griddle pan (minus the ridges) made its way into our kitchen collection -- courtesy of my mother, who said that the Sailor could now have his own dish to fry up bacon. 

Sure enough, that griddle has seen a lot of bacon grease. 

This weekend, I discovered that it's also the perfect vessel to use to bake a pizza. 

We eat a lot of pizza... and going out for the stuff isn't cheap. We haven't found a great place that delivers here, and some days, you just want pizza now. Plus, the Sailor is picky about the amount of sauce on his pizza. The only way around this is to make our own. So, in an effort to get out of my cooking rut, and also to try a new recipe every week, I decided to finally make pizza.

Whole Foods here sells fresh dough for $3 -- cheaper than a slice! (I know, I know... I could make it even cheaper, but let's go the convenient route for now, shall we? If you want to make your own dough, I found this great recipe with detailed instructions here.)  

Once I got the dough home though, I realized I didn't own a pizza stone, or even a chintzy pizza pan. After living in such a small kitchen for years, I dislike having things that are only good for one or two dishes, even though I now have more space to store them. Pizza pans are right up there. But a cast iron griddle? You can make a lot more than bacon in that thing. Like pizza, for instance. 

We halved the dough, since the skillet isn't that big and proceeded to bake a homemade pizza in our oven. It was the perfect size for the two of us and we still had a leftover slice to split later. 

The crust didn't cooperate with us on one edge, and I think I probably should have put the spinach below the rest of the ingredients. Never mind all of that -- the pizza tasted delicious and it didn't stick at all to the cast iron griddle. Best of all, who needs a pizza stone? Win win.

Embroidered Details

I will admit that while I'm generally crafty and creative, embroidery has never been my thing. I don't know why I have such a hard time with it... I can hand stitch a hem that looks fairly neat, but when it comes to embroidery, I struggle. 

Nevertheless, I like a good challenge, so I made these baby blue jeans. Months ago, I checked a book out of the library that had the pattern, discovered that Rowan Denim has been discontinued, ordered Den-M-Nit instead from Elann, and then found the pattern for free on Ravely. Thankfully, the latter happened, otherwise I would have most likely exceeded the number of library check-outs before I finished these. 

These are so, so cute, and will apparently fade even more with every wash -- just like a pair of jeans. They are also a royal pain to put together. I never mind seaming garments together. As I previously mentioned, I know how to sew. However, these jeans needed to be embroidered with the pocket and fly details first, before sewing them together. 

I had a hard time figuring out the placement of said pockets. Then, the in-seams and crotch are actually put together with this visible embroidered seam. I don't think I did too terribly, but then I ran out of orange yarn right when I got to the last part. 

Well, it gives me an excuse to redo that part to make it look a bit neater, I suppose. 

Speaking of neat embroidery... my mother was always outstanding at it. As a child, I loved horses, and my mom made me a giant quilt with hand-embroidered horses in every square.

I've never been super sentimental about stuff in general, but this blanket has been an exception. It traveled to college with me and then to England, and even though it never made it to Africa, I missed it while I was there. 

One of these days, I'll have to redo the edges, because they're starting to fray, but thankfully the embroidery is all intact. Otherwise, my mom would have a lot of work to redo, because there's no way I'd be up for that kind of challenge.

Finishing

Spring cleaning (even if the weather is less than springy outside) means that I feel the urge to get those WIPs done. So this weekend, I did just that.

It's not usually the actual knitting that takes forever. It's the last little bits -- seaming pieces together, sewing on buttons, and of course, blocking. You know, the stuff that's not actually 'knitting', but is just as important to the final product? 

Remember all of those fiddly things I had to do on several knitting projects? Well, this weekend, I finished two out of three. (The blanket still needs to be stitched together... but I'm pretty sure the sewing machine and I will get a little friendly this week.)

 

Buttons on a wee cardi...

Edging finally finished on an even bigger cardi...

And a few extra things found in a pile that got blocked over the weekend. It's amazing what accumulates in said pile because I'm too lazy to look for a button in the jar, or to get the blocking boards out.

I'm truly happy that everything 'grey' I've been working on seems finally DONE. (Remind me never again to work on so many grey things at once...especially over the winter.) Now I can start working on some stuff with a little more color to it. 

For more info on blocking your knitting, read this past post here.

South African Sailor Homecomings

I know I just wrote about needing some recipe inspiration this week... but then I remembered that I promised the Sailor a proper South African milk tart when he arrives home. No inspiration needed there!

When I discovered that it was his favorite dessert while we were dating, I set out to perfect it. I've had a few disasters along the way (once, I actually flushed the contents of the pan because it was so awful. I had attempted to make it at a friend's house and mistakenly used corn meal instead of corn starch. They didn't have a garbage disposal. I still don't remember what we ate for dessert instead.) 

But by now, I've got this recipe in the bag. Or the vintage Pyrex -- which by the way, is the perfect size for fridge milk tart.

I'm sure the Sailor will be happy. I'll be even more thrilled that he's home.